You’ve had a baby, and you’re pregnant with number two, three (or more). You feel excited to welcome another child into your family, but you also feel apprehensive about going through birth again. Maybe you had a healthy baby, but things didn’t go exactly ‘to plan’, and you missed out on the vaginal birth you really wanted. Now that you’re pregnant again, you’re wondering if it is possible to have a vaginal birth after a caesarean section.
Perhaps you are seeking that oxytocin high that people talk about after a vaginal birth. Or you want to avoid the 6 weeks recovery from another caesarean section?
Sound familiar? …. You deserve answers to your questions, to feel empowered to make your own decisions about what feels best for you, your baby and go into your VBAC feeling confident, prepared and excited for the big day?!
Is it safe to have a vaginal birth after a caesarean?
It does depend on the reason you had a caesarean in the past, however VBAC’s are a safe option for most women. In fact, for women who have had one previous caesarean section (no previous vaginal birth) the VBAC rate is 72-75%. With one previous caesarean section (at least one previous vaginal birth) the VBAC rate is 85% – 90%!
What about the risk of uterine rupture that the care providers keep talking about?
The risk of uterine rupture is 0.5% for those aiming for a VBAC and <0.02% for those who choose to have a subsequent caesarean section. Nothing is risk free and only you get to choose if you are comfortable with this small increase in risk, not your care provider.
Due to the marginally increased risk of uterine rupture, the hospitals will usually advocate for a repeat caesarean section, even though caesarean section does not guarantee you will not have a uterine rupture and the risk profile is very similar.
So when it comes to having a VBAC where do you start?
The location (hospital/birth centre etc) you choose to give birth in and the care provider you choose as a support, will have a significant impact on the likelihood of achieving a positive VBAC.
It is critical to find a care provider that is a genuine advocate for the outcome you’re hoping for. Traditionally this is seen with midwifery lead care, as midwives are the experts in physiological birth. There are some obstetricians that genuinely support VBAC’s, but we need to remember that they are experts in surgery and many do not support VBAC’s. Often, they will only agree to support a VBAC if it is on their terms and these terms are not backed by evidence, such as induction of labour for VBACs.
As a Hypnobirthing Practitioner and Positive Birth Advocate for the past 4 years, I believe knowledge is power when it comes to you having the birth you desire, particularly when aiming for a VBAC. The Positive Birth Program, where I help guide you to better understand the physiology of birth and the things that you can do to advocate for yourself and your baby, will give you the best opportunity for a VBAC. You will learn techniques to help prepare yourself mentally, and about how to move
your body to create space within your pelvis and to encourage baby to get into the optimal position for a vaginal birth.
You and your birth partner will also learn what questions to ask to get the information that you need from your care providers to make a fully informed decision. When women come from a place of being fully informed and educated and they feel like they have been a part of the decision-making process, they can reflect on their birth positively, no matter the outcome.
We cannot 100% control the outcome of our birthing experience, but we can make educated decisions throughout pregnancy and labour to help reduce the potential of unnecessary interventions. Preparing for a VBAC is like training for a marathon, firstly you need to believe you can do it, educate yourself how to do it, train and fuel your body for the big day and pace yourself through labour as it is an endurance event like no other.
There is no better feeling then knowing you have given your baby the best start to life and be able to look back at your birthing experience in a positive way.
VBAC Mama Alicia : I DID IT!!! 
I manifested this moment for so long! With the help & education from Danielle @your.sacred.spae I totally smashed my physiological VBAC birth. The hypnobirthing classes gave my partner and I the knowledge, tools and confidence to have the birth I wanted, not what the hospital wanted for me !!!
The Positive Birth Program is run monthly at Bodyfit & Flex in Birkdale, Brisbane.
The ideal time to start The positive birth class is from 20 to 30 weeks. However, I believe that there are benefits to doing the program at all phases of pregnancy no matter what your individual fears and concerns are.
Click here to find out more
Labouring at home for as long as possible is the best option in any uncomplicated birth and most importantly, your partner can labour with you. Some of the most beautiful parts of labour occur at home, watching movies, lying in your bed together standing under the shower or walking the block.
If we think of birth as an act of intimacy, like making love with your partner, you can start to understand the benefits of labouring at home. The hormones that you make during love making is called Oxytocin, this is the same hormone that our body produces in birth. In fact, your body will make the highest levels of oxytocin it has ever made during birth. It builds progressively during labour, just like it does during intimacy with your partner. Therefore, labouring at home where you feel safe, supported and unobserved will assist your labour to progress in a more straightforward, smooth and positive manner.
If you arrive at hospital once labour has fully progressed it is harder to disrupt the flow of oxytocin and your labour will continue to progress as it did at home, rather than stalling or stopping all together. Women who labour confidently at home tend to show up at the hospital and breathe their baby’s out quickly. This significantly reduces the potential for interventions and pressure to ‘move things along’ from care providers. As you learn to manage your surges with movement and other relaxation techniques you will continue to use those techniques when you arrive at hospital.
If you would like to build your confidence in staying at home, click here and come and join The Positive Birth Program, I recommend starting classes somewhere between 20 – 32 weeks pregnant.
Induction is not something to be chosen lightly. I have personally had two births, a long, slow, natural, completely intervention free birth and a medically induced quick birth. I urge all mum’s thinking of saying yes to induction to make sure the choice is one that is informed and based on necessity.
December 2016 I was waiting for my Christmas baby to arrive, her ‘due date’ was the 24th December. Given her brother was 6 days overdue, I never thought that my Christmas baby would come early, in fact I thought she would come around New Year’s Eve.
True to her nature, Sienna had other ideas. My membranes started releasing on the 12th Dec at 5pm. I had tested positive for Group B Strep 1 week prior; which meant I was high risk for the hospital I was birthing in. My obstetrician wanted to induce me immediately, however I negotiated for 24 hours to go home, sleep in my own bed and wait for labour to start naturally.
I struggled to surrender to the change of direction and spent the night listening to my hypnobirthing tracks, while tossing and turning. I got up early the next day and with my mum and fiancé, we walked my son to daycare, said goodbye, knowing that I wouldn’t see Aston again until his sister was earth side.
We walked the long way home, walking some big hills in hope of kicking things off. Half way home my obstetrician called to say they were no longer comfortable with me being at home and they wanted me to come into the hospital to be monitored and would induce me at 5pm. I tried to protest and was told that if I didn’t come in, the hospital would terminate their care. I was shocked, but what options did I have? I did not want to change hospitals the day of my birth.
Truth be told, I was struggling, the natural birth I had planned and prepared for was slipping away and I was scared and could feel the anxiety creeping in. My birth was changing course quickly and turning into everything I didn’t want.
I had acupuncture before arriving at the hospital and then spent hours walking the streets around the hospital on a scorching hot summers day, but there was no sign of labour, so I had no choice but to let the Induction start at 5pm.
Care providers normalize induction, claiming you can move freely, just like you can with an intervention free birth. I beg to differ, I was hooked up to an IV Drip and stand and would have to drag it around with me everywhere I went. Constant fetal monitoring strapped to my belly that moved out of place every time I moved and the constant beeping of the monitor mixed up my baby’s heart rate with mine. The midwives were so fixated on adjusting the fetal monitoring belts and making sure everything that I was hooked up to was working, it was like I was invisible and I felt like I was just a vessel that needed monitoring and recorded.
It took some time for the induction to take effect, which allowed me time to finally surrender to the process. It was such a different birth to my first and once labour started it was intense. There was no rest between the artificially induced surges, I felt out of body and doubted my ability to go the distance.
My birth team worked tirelessly to get my mindset on track, we had planned and prepared for birth together and everyone knew how important minimal intervention was to me. We named the IV stand Betty. I swore at Betty a lot! (swearing helped). I hated dragging Betty and all the wires around when I wanted to go to the toilet or change positions. The canular in my hand hurt every time I clenched my fist or moved the wrong way.
Slowly as the labour intensified I drew inward, knowing that if I wanted to resist further interventions I needed to trust in my body and my baby. I knew that stress and resistance was only going to inhibit labour. Luckily for me, this labour was quick. Once things kicked off at 7pm it was like a sprint to the finish line and Sienna Adele was born at 11.47pm.
It wasn’t the beautiful, calm, peaceful and gradual experience I had with Aston but it was a powerful and life changing birth. It taught me that we cannot control everything in life and sometimes we have to trust in the process and surrender.
It took me a long time to process, and when I looked back on the birth I felt that I was out of control and failed as a woman to have a peaceful birth. It wasn’t until the day I sat with my beautiful birth photographer two months later to watch the video she put together that I saw the beauty in my birth. Truth be told, I was worried that I wouldn’t like the photos, being hooked up to Betty was everything that I didn’t want. But as I sat there watching it, I saw strength, power and beauty. I had given my baby the best birth experience I could with the situation that presented itself and that is what Hypnobirthing is all about. My fiancé, my mum and my birth photographer were by my side every step of the way, supporting me in exactly the right way.
The midwives did the best that they could, but truth be told I was a minority, the young midwife that attended most of my birth advised me several days later that she had never seen someone go through an induction without an epidural, it just wasn’t what they saw in the private hospital I was in.
As I look back, I am so grateful for this experience, as it gave me the insight to the pressures that women experience from the hospital system. I am now able to support more mums as I truly understand how quickly birth can change direction and how important it is to be educated about your rights as a birthing mum.
So If you’re soon to give birth, and you stress about things like this happening, please know that you have a choice. And having the information is important to be able to advocate for yourself and your baby. If you have any questions, please reach out, I’m here to support you.
Click here if you would like to know more about me.
